Assessing Euro-Med Trade Preferences: The Case of Entry Price Reduction

The EU protects some of its fruits and vegetables through the entry price system. This system is implemented for “sensitive” products which often are important for the exports of Southern Mediterranean Countries (SMC) such as tomatoes, cucumbers, artichokes, courgettes, peaches and citrus fruits. In many cases, the system applies on a seasonal basis, remaining the protection for a part of the year through the “usual” tariff system. In some cases, SMC have agreed a reduction of the entry price applied for their exports to the EU. In this paper, we show a new indicator to gauge the gains accrued to the SMC in these cases and apply it to the case of Moroccan clementines.